Innovating social connectedness for agricultural innovations in eastern Ethiopia

Desalegn Yadeta Wedajo, Mideksa Fufa Jilito, Fatih Yildiz
2020 Cogent Food & Agriculture  
Agricultural innovations can be triggered by the social networks in which farmers have purposefully organized to support themselves. This paper, therefore, explores the values of social connectedness within locally established societies' mutual support associations for agricultural innovations. This study explains how mutual support social network associations trigger agricultural innovations and the way farmers utilize such networks to spiral agricultural innovations. Indigenous mutual support
more » ... associations like Guuza, Iqubi and Afoosha function in trust-based self-enforcing orders, social networks and relationships in a more flexible and reciprocity-based order. These informal social networks are employed by farmers to collaborate on society's mutual support practices. Trust, norms and group membership are the key components of social capital within indigenous mutual support associations. The social connectedness within the sort of labor-sharing arrangement, informal financial group, funeral association and inter-village link aids member's collective capacity to figure the development of agricultural innovations. Inherently embedded social networks, mutual support, information sharing, interaction and trust among the members within mutual support associations are the ABOUT THE AUTHORS Desalegn Yadeta
doi:10.1080/23311932.2020.1809943 fatcat:ny6y2k6rn5bhnlvmek37wljozm